


In Which Erik Can't Skate

by brilliantdreams



Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Charles in a Wheelchair, Erik is a Sweetheart, Established Relationship, Ice Skating, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-03 21:41:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13350096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brilliantdreams/pseuds/brilliantdreams
Summary: School trip to the ice rink. Erik can't skate. Lucky his boyfriend is there to give him a hand~





	In Which Erik Can't Skate

“Erik, be careful, you don’t look too steady there!”

 “Come on, get it together, Dude!”

“S-SHUT UP!”

Feet nearly sliding out from under him, Erik made a clumsy grab for the railing as his classmates passed him by, teasing with stupid grins and smart mouths. Ordinarily, very few of them would be willing to strike up any kind of conversation with Erik without Charles by his side. But today they were unfortunately all too happy to approach him. No doubt feeling warm and fuzzy with the bonding nature of the field trip. They hadn’t even minded that he’d yelled.

Ahead of him, his classmates glided easily out onto the ice of the skate rink. Erik, however, was finding it much more difficult and was yet to let go of the rail near the opening to the rink. His knees were wobbling and he couldn’t make his feet face forward. He was gripping so tight to the rail that he could feel the chilly metal through his thick gloves.

It wasn’t fair, Erik decided to himself, dragging his heavy, uncoordinated body hand by hand along the rail. Grinding his teeth hard, he sat his hips low in an unheard bid for balance. It just wasn’t fair.

When the seniors had decided to go ice-skating for their fun day, Erik was sure (as he kept very, very quiet about his inability to skate) that some of the jocks wouldn’t be able to either. He’d also counted on the possibility of some of the guys from Charles’ little science club, bodies lanky and underused, being more uncoordinated. But that was fundamentally not the case.  

A little further up from where Erik was clunking along on the ice, trying to walk as though the skates were shoes, were the only other people having close to as much trouble as him. A pair of girls who countered the awkward legs-all-over-the-place thing by pressing their thighs and knees tightly together and playing it cute with flustered pink cheeks and bubbly self-deprecating laughter.

Not an option for Erik.

But the ones who annoyed Erik most weren’t the jocks or the science nerds or the girls. It was the people right up the front, performing neat little twirls every now and then. On the way here, there had been a group of them talking about how good they were at skating because they had younger siblings who still enjoyed such things.

Erik inwardly cursed his own sister, Ruth, and her traitorous lack of interest in ice skating. He could have so easily been one of them if not for her. It was all too little too late, Erik was quickly realising.

By some miracle, Erik wasn’t actually the last person onto the ice. Although, the last person was in fact Charles, who had some negotiating to do because of his chair, so it did not serve to hearten Erik any. Even less so when Charles was all set and came gliding onto the ice, quickly maneuvering over to Erik in the time it had taken Erik to go about three steps.

“Why didn’t you say you can’t skate, Erik? You can hold onto my chair if you like,” said Charles, unhelpfully bumping into Erik’s legs as he came to a sliding stop.

“No, thank you,” he replied shortly, glaring at Charles as the other boy began to wheel himself along with purposeful slowness to keep pace with Erik’s clunking.

“Why not? Everyone will just think you’re helping the poor wheelchair boy,” said Charles amicably making Erik laugh out loud; a terrible barking thing that alarmed a small boy skating near them.

“As if _anyone_ in our whole school thinks you are ‘ _the poor wheelchair boy’_.”

Charles chuckled too and smiled at Erik, cheeks and nose pink with the cold, eyes happy and glossy and impressively blue. Charles had extraordinary eyes. Erik imagined that even in the dark they’d probably still somehow manage to be twinkly and bright.

“Well then, they might think you’re being _romantic_ ,” Charles suggested with a sly grin, and Erik’s face burst into heat, jaw ramming shut.

Offensively unfazed, Charles continued, nodding out onto the ice: “Look, Scott is helping Jean.” Up ahead, Scott Summers and Jean Grey were making their way along in a fit of giggles, all hands as Scott ‘helped’ Jean who, in Erik’s opinion, didn’t seem like she really needed any help at all.

“That could be us,” mused Charles with a hum, knowing full well what he was doing. Erik hated PDA. Charles often said the only reason anyone could tell that they were dating was because of how terribly protective Erik could be. Charles was sociable, attentive to conversation, and generous with compliments. It was only natural that people tended to feel the flutter of attraction towards him because of it. But Erik was the jealous type. ‘Public Displays of Aggression’ Charles had once joked.

“I’m not going to drool all over you in public,” Erik said, mouth sour.

“But you’ll drool all over me later?”

“I swear to God, Charles.”

“Oh dear,” Charles remarked cheerfully, smiling infuriatingly as Erik tried again to align his feet enough to properly skate some. Mischief managed, Charles measured Erik with a pitying expression.

“You really should just hold onto me though. You look ridiculous.”

Ridiculous did pretty well sum it up. Erik was still clutching the handrail for dear life, half bent over with the effort, butt sticking out, and head cricked at a weird angle to let him to speak to Charles. And he’d covered a truly sad amount of ice. Some of their classmates were coming back around the rink, ready to lap them.  And though many of them had already seen Erik failing impressively, perhaps he might still save some dignity by actually managing to stand up. He could pretend that he’d gotten the hang of it, and that he and Charles were just going slowly because they were talking. And holding onto the chair could be put down to the fact that, yes, Charles and Erik were dating.

A desperate but appealing idea.

Reluctantly, before the others got too close, Erik took hold of Charles’ chair, and heaved himself upright.

It helped a lot. He suddenly didn’t have to worry about balancing so he could focus on straightening out his feet and standing upright. As a few of their classmates went by, not one of them called out to Erik again. A few slowed to chat to Charles for a minute of course, but then they were off. Thank god for that.

At first Charles rolled them along, tugging Erik behind him, but eventually, Erik could actually create some momentum himself to push them both forward while Charles steered with his wheels. The teamwork made something soft and warm unfurl in Erik’s chest, but he kept it to himself, lest he be teased again. He occupied this feeling with running his gaze over Charles as they turned a corner that revealed the other boy’s profile to him. Charles was smiling and chattering animatedly to Erik about something Erik couldn’t hear very well. He looked happy and relaxed and Erik was again struck with affection for him. Erik followed him round the bend and was met with the back of Charles’ head again. Erik suddenly thought he understood some of why Charles hated so much to have anyone push his chair.

“I don’t like this,” he said. “I can’t really hear you when you’re facing the front like this.”

Charles tipped his head back, curly hair falling off his brow making his face look smooth and round and his chilly pink lips and blue, blue eyes pop against his fair skin. God, he was pretty. Erik murdered a thought about how easy it would be to lean down and kiss Charles’ forehead.

“Mmmm, not ideal, is it?” Charles agreed.

“Don’t suppose you can stay like that,” asked Erik, inclining his chin at Charles’ current posture. But the boy shook his head.

“I can’t unfortunately. You’ll have to learn quickly, darling,” Charles replied and then returned face forward leaving Erik looking at the back of his head.

They skated in silence for a bit while Erik focused his energy on getting a good, steady rhythm going with his feet. One foot down, push out and back, next foot down, out and back. Repeat.

Once they’d made it a full lap around the rink without incident, Erik experienced a stupid burst of pride as he saw Charles let go of his wheels and lay them in his lap, letting Erik steer. He flexed his stiff fingers where he held Charles’ chair, wriggling some more feeling into them now that he’d been tasked with more responsibility.

It was chilly in the ice rink, and as Erik worked on making smooth turns, he wondered if Charles was wearing enough. He had the lap blanket Raven had given him for his birthday last year, but he didn’t have anything on his head. Erik could see the tips of Charles’ rosy ears peeking out through his curls.

“Are you warm enough?” Erik asked, gripping the chair hard as he struggled to multi task speaking with accurate steering. “Do you want my hat?” He could see the line of Charles shoulders rise up in annoyance. He tipped his head back again to angle his pouty face at Erik.

“I’m fine, _Mother_.”

Erik huffed.

“Hey, you know it’s not your mother who will be throwing a fit if you catch a cold. And you’re not the one who will be in trouble either. This is self-preservation, Charles.”

Erik could picture exactly what would happen if Charles wheeled into Erik’s mother’s house having caught a cold. Edie Lehnsherr adored Charles, and Erik was sure to face absolute outrage and a good lecture if he didn’t make sure Charles was well looked after.

Erik himself was always well looked after. His mother had pulled the very hat he was offering Charles over his head as he headed for the door, and made him stand still to check he had his thermal on and had packed his gloves before he was permitted to leave the house. She’d spare no concern for Erik. He’d already met the standards. But Charles, Edie could not do these things for. Charles left a very different house in the morning and he unfortunately didn’t have a mother who saw it her responsibility to see him off every day. Therefore, according to Edie, it was Erik’s job to make sure Charles, who she could not accost every time he went outside, had everything he needed to be happy and healthy on her behalf. Charles was very nearly a Lehnsherr, and it was the fate of all Lehnsherrs to be utterly doted upon by Edie.

Charles considered the offer with narrowed eyes, which told Erik he too knew exactly what would happen if Edie found out that Erik had not offered his hat.

“Alright, give it here then,” he sighed.

Not willing to risk letting go of the wheelchair while Charles didn’t have his hands ready, Erik stooped down, leaning over and inclining his head so that Charles could reach up and pull the hat off. He then jammed it roughly onto his own curly topped head. When he tipped his head back to speak again, Erik watched his face suddenly soften and eyes fill with humour as Charles gazed up at him.

“What?”

“Your hair,” he said, affection in his tone. Erik lifted a hand to his head and felt where the hat had mussed his hair about, leaving it soft and tufty. Grumbling in embarrassment, he attempted to flatten it with a pawing hand. Charles laughed at his efforts.

“Leave it, you look very sweet. Ruffled.”

“I don’t want to look sweet and ruffled,” growled Erik, making Charles laugh again.

“Maybe later I’ll make you sweet and ruffled myself.”

“ _Charles!_ ” Erik hissed at the other boy through clenched teeth, casting around nervously. Charles hooted with laughter yet again.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Charles told him, grinning. “But look, you’re skating with only one hand holding me. I think you can probably let go now!”

Erik stared, surprised, at his free hand. He was indeed only holding on with one, and he hadn’t even realised! His feet had kept moving the whole time too!

Charles took hold of his own wheels again. And slowly, Erik let go of the chair.

He was skating!  A little wobbly, but staying on his feet. Taking a deep breath, Erik maneuvered to the side, away from the edge of the rink, and onto Charles’ left so that they were skating together. The other boy was beaming.

“Well done!”

Erik tried very hard to summon a stoic air of nonchalance, but he was actually rather pleased as well. Even more so when a sense of balance returned between them as Erik resumed his usual spot by Charles’ side.

“Perhaps you’d like to hold my hand, just in case,” said Charles with a curvy smile as Erik wobbled around a bend (but didn’t fall!). Erik wrinkled his nose but carefully shifted his center of gravity so that he could lean over a little and adjust his hat on Charles’ head, brushing his knuckles lightly against Charles’ cheek as he did so.

“Maybe later.”

Charles’ grin was blinding.

 

 


End file.
